Georgia

2009

Amid ongoing attacks on journalists, CPJ advocacy in Europe
and Central Asia has generated some positive results.
Earlier this month, a CPJ delegation
met with Russian and European officials, who promised to revisit 17
journalist murders in Russia since 2000. The declared
commitment to reverse Russia’s grim record of impunity came after we
presented our own in-depth investigation into the unsolved
killings of Russian journalists in our report Anatomy
of Injustice.

Tags:

New York, September
18, 2009—The Committee to Protect Journalists urges Georgian authorities to
drop criminal charges against the Tbilisi bureau chief for the Russian news
agency RIA Novosti and allow him to work without fear of harassment. According
to RIA Novosti, Besik Pipia is facing up to three years in prison if convicted
on a criminal charge of document forgery.

Tags:

Mikhail Saakashvili and Vladimir Putin used strikingly similar tactics to create uncritical television media. The one-sided, one-dimensional coverage of the conflict in South Ossetia was the product of their efforts
By Nina Ognianova

Tags:

Three journalists were killed and at least 10 were wounded during a brief but bloody conflict in the disputed region of South Ossetia that pitted Georgian troops against local and Russian forces. South Ossetian separatists strengthened their position after the conflict--gaining full recognition from Moscow and the active support of Russian troops--although Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili reaped at least a short-term spike in popularity.

CPJ’s Joel Simon, Robert Mahoney, and Nina Ognianova pay tribute to journalists who died in 2008. The toll was highest in Iraq, but conflicts in South Asia and the Caucasus were deadly as well. Impunity in journalist murders in Russia, Philippines, and Mexico were top issues.